Page 120 of Condemned By Betrayal
The priest begins: “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate the marriage of Salvario De Falco and Elowen. Marriage is a sacred covenant, founded on love, trust, faithfulness, and commitment. Today, these two have chosen to unite their lives and pledge themselves to one another.”
He then turns to Salvario. “Salvario De Falco, do you take Elowen to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love her, comfort her, honor and protect her, forsaking all others, and to remain faithful to her for as long as you both shall live?”
He answers with a firm “I do.”
Then he turns to me. “Elowen, do you take Salvario De Falco to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love him, comfort him, honor and cherish him, forsaking all others, and to remain faithful to him for as long as you both shall live?”
I smile, looking at my man. “I do.”
The priest says, “Salvario, you may say your vows.”
He holds my gaze and vows, “I, Salvario, take you, Elowen, to be my lawfully wedded wife. To have and to hold from this day forward. For better or for worse. For richer or for poorer. In sickness and in health. To love and to cherish. Until death do us part.”
The priest then turns to me. “Elowen, you may now say yours.”
I smile, my eyes stinging.
God, why am I getting emotional? Hold back, Wen, you already can’t speak properly.
I clear my tight throat and start speaking. “I, Elowen, take you, S-salvario, to be m-my lawfully wedded husband. To have and to hold from this day forward. For better or for worse. For r-r-richer or for poorer. In s-sickness and in health. To love and to cherish. Until death do us part.”
By the time I finish, my voice is already thin. Salvario gives my hands a light squeeze. I smile, getting more teary.
The priest calls for the rings. “May I have the rings?”
“Our ring bearers are coming,” Ilyas says, pointing toward the entry arch, from where Bruno and Rosie are approaching.
Bruno is wearing a bow tie, and Rosie is wearing a veil. I chuckle, looking at my babies, and now this has restored my emotional state.
They both come to Salvario and me. Ilyas takes the rings from Bruno’s bow tie and hands them to the priest. The priest then continues, “These rings are an outward symbol of the vows you have made today. Their endless circle represents a love without end.”
He extends the ring to Salvario. “Salvario, place the ring upon Elowen’s finger.”
Salvario releases one of my hands and takes the ring. Then he places it on my finger. The same ring he placed there before comes home again.
The priest extends my ring to me. “Elowen, place the ring upon Salvario’s finger.”
I take it in my trembling hand, and despite practicing the moment for a week, I become clumsy as hell and almost drop the ring from my shaking fingers. With a lot of effort, I place it on Salvario’s finger. He, like promised, keeps his hand extended with all the patience in the world.
“By the authority vested in me, and in the presence of God and these witnesses, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Salvario, you may now kiss your bride.”
He releases both my hands. For a second, I lose my balance, since I was standing with their support, but I don’t even get to stumble as he holds me by my waist with his other hand on the back of my head and kisses me tenderly and deeply at once.
And just like that, my fairytale love reaches the place I dreamed of during countless sleepless nights.
It’s not a perfect fairytale. Our roses have long thorns, and our rainbows only appeared after the fiercest rainstorms. But it’s mine and Salvario’s fairytale—the imperfectly perfect story of a beauty and her beast.
Epilogue
Salvario
2 years later.
The door closes behind me as I make my way to the chair placed in front of a wooden table in an office that can’t belong to a sane person. It contains more plants than any plant nursery could hold in this amount of space.
“Mr. De Falco, how are you?” Stan Oxford asks in his ever-cheerful voice.
“Good.” I sit in the chair.
